By popular demand: Ranken College in Perryville, Southeast add manufacturing-based education

To meet the demands of a changing manufacturing industry, area students soon will have more options for postsecondary education and professional development.

TG Missouri Corp. has partnered with Ranken Technical College to open a school in Perryville, Missouri, and Southeast Missouri State University will add a degree program in industrial engineering this fall.

Dan Kania, who oversees the new Ranken Technical College in Perryville, said the school is modeled after the Ranken Tech established in Wentzville, Missouri, about four years ago.

It was started with about a dozen students "to fill the skills shortage," he said.

"The goal is and the goal has always been to make programs that are focused on hands-on education," he said. "That's our mainstay."

Nathan Hill learns how to calculate a torque wrench as his instructor John Otte watches Tuesday at Ranken Technical College in Perryville, Missouri.Laura Simon

He said Ranken provides that through two-year programs that include classroom experience and hands-on and internship experience, all while working closely with manufacturers to improve curriculum.

"There are almost 300 students out there [enrolled at the Wentzville location] right now," he said. "Based on that success, we're hoping this goes along that same route."

The Perryville location is training TG Missouri Corp. interns in industrial engineering.

"Originally, we were going to open up in the fall," Kania said. "But TG wanted to get started."

Although the program is in a facility owned by TG Missouri Corp., the plan is to expand to a new Ranken-owned facility as enrollment grows.

Kania said he hopes to have at least 20 new enrollees this fall in addition to the 10 from TG Missouri.

This fall, Southeast's industrial engineering program will begin.

Brad Deken, chair of the Department of Polytechnic Studies, said the program's approval comes after more than a year of effort.

He said the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education approved the project after area businesses expressed a desire to have such a program nearby rather than in Rolla, Missouri, or Columbia, Missouri.

"It took industry people coming on board and saying, 'This is a need,'" he said. "It is definitely of interest to some of the companies around here. It has been a long time coming."

The four-year degree track will be about optimization, and Deken said the skills taught will be applicable not only in manufacturing fields, but in health care, transportation and other systems.

"Optimization is a huge part of this track," he said. "It's all about getting data and using data to make improvements. ... If someone's assembling a part, it's, 'How can we assemble it one second faster?'... Anywhere you have processes you're trying to improve, there's room for an industrial engineer."

He said the benefit of having a program locally is it will attract more local people.

"They're more likely to stay and work in our region as well. Students from University of Missouri-Columbia are less likely to stay in this region because they're not connected to this region," he said.

John Mehner, president and CEO of the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce, said in a university news release the program will help draw industry to the region by introducing technically educated people into the area workforce.

Fred Ducharme, senior general manager of TG Missouri Corp., expressed his enthusiasm for Southeast's new program in a news release.

"TGMO will gain access to valuable engineering talent willing to stay employed in the region," Ducharme said. "This is needed to stabilize our technical foundation for the growth yet to come."

tgraef@semissourian.com

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